My 13 day Thai fishing adventure (day 13)

[SIMPLE MAN]

Last day now,Damian comes early this morning as he has to pick up another guy who is going barramundi fishing at Boon Mar Ponds,so i arrive at Bungsanram at 08.45 and Boosong is waiting for me and today i am back at bungalow 29,Today the sun is out and it was not too hot so should make for a good days fishing,As usual it takes Boosong 30min or so to get the bait ready but this morning he has been busy and before i arrived he had knocked up a load of ground bait so i too was busy throwing in half a sack (20kg) of bait into my swim and not long after my rods were baited and out,I dont know why but today there were loads of carp in the 50-80lb range rising all around my swim with the odd massive one making a show once in a while,i have never ever seen so many monster carp in my life so mine and Boosongs hopes were high,not long later i was into my first fish of the day and as usual it was a sawai of 25lb and not too long after that i had another of one of 32lb i know its not what i am after but is still good sport and any way the lake does not normaly get going until 11.00 so the fish are a bonus of sorts any way and its not even 09.30 yet, about 30min later the line was peeling off one of my rods and this was no sawai but although a size felt not to big and after a 15min battle i had a nice mekong in the net which came in at 41lb and blow me a short while later i had yet another one on which again didnt feel of any great size but this one was running all over the place and just would not come to the net and just as i was thinking that may be i was wrong and it was bigger than i thought it came to the net and weighed in at 46lb that one really made me work,
There seemed to be even more carp than ever now rising and i think to my self how long before i get my chance,even Boosong seems to be getting excited and is pointing them out all over but still they wont play ball and take my bait,the reel is again screaming and i have yet another fish pulling my string although we didnt see it i guess it was in the 40-60lb guestimate because after 10min or so the line went slack and when it came in my hook was as straight as a ruler lol we both agreed that i had lost a mekong and not a carp and i soon had two baits back out in the water which was beggining to be a very busy day and blow me but not 10 min later i was in again but this was my old friend mr sawai 28lb and as we were landing it my other rod was going yet again so a quick shuffle and i am on to yet another mekong but after a couple of runs it shed the hook and to be honest it was nice to sit down for 10min while Boosong re baited up my rods and have a drink and give my groin and shoulders a break
In the next two hours i had three more mekongs of 42lb 47lb and 38lb and things were really heating up now and although i wasnt catching any of the monsters that lurk in there i was having one hell of a good time,
For the next 45 min things seemed to go pretty quiet and although the carp were ever present my body was getting its strength back and just i felt up to it again my line is peeling off once more and Boosong picks up the rod and sets the hook with three or four big hits and as he passes me the rod he says mr carp John mr carp and this is no mekong thats for sure and for 5 or 6min everything seems to be ok but then it starts heading down towards the bungalows to my left and i am having a real problem trying to stop it but just as i think its going under the bungalow next door but one it turns and starts coming back out into open water and another 5min or so i have it 20ft out but still unsighted, i start to gain a bit more line and in a flash it turns and comes straight at me before i know what has really gone on its under the f****** bungalow and well and truelly snagged me up but as we all know thats fishing but it dont make it feel any better and i sit back down and have a drink and a smoke feeling quite peeved off with myself,After three and three quarter days i blew what turned out to be my only chance of another cracking carp,and a short while later whilst still feeling sorry for myself my line is again peeling off and when i hit this one i know straight away that this is a nice fish and before i can say big fish Boosong has got that landing net in his hands and blowing only he knows how his fog horn which still irritates the hell out of me but hey ho theres not much i can do about it and any way its off 40-50yrds out now and i dont want to lose this one,about 15min later i think i have it 20yrds out and have just got to get it to the net when it gets a second wind and in 5 seconds i am back to square one,these fish certainly have got some power and another 15min passes before i again have this fish near the net and although it tries to make another run or two five min later i have a cracker off 118lb and all of a sudden losing the carp is just a distant memory



Its now 5.00 and my trip is nearing the end when Damian rings Boosong and tells him that he is stuck in traffic and if i want he will pay for me to get a taxi back to my hotel,but i say as its my last day i dont mind if i stay fishing a bit longer and as far as i am concerned its a bonus,
We normally left at 6.15-6.30 so i am happy enough after all i have got another hours fishing (cant be bad) over the next hour i have two sawai of 26lb and 20lb and its now starting to get dark and things are pretty slack and i am just thinking of saying to Boosong about packing up and going to the bar for a goodbye drink when one of my rods bends round Boosong grabs the rod and hits it mr mekong John mr mekong and as he passes me the rod i find my self standing on the landing net and and i start thinking i can play this fish in silence but Boosong soon has the handle of the net and is blowing his fog horn again,
Boosong says big fish John big fish and this feels like nothing i have hooked so far you see when you are in to say a 50-60lber the fish goes off quite quick and you can feel its tail swishing quite fast from side to side,when you hook a 70-90lber it goes off slower and doesnt swish its tail so much and what ever size fish i have on here its gone off real slow and for the first time on my trip i cannot even feel its tail swishing at all and the weight is like nothing that i have experienced for a long long time,for the next 15min i try to get some sort of hold on it but its just not playing ball i cannot even turn it its gone right along the right hand bank 90-100yrds and then come left 30yrds and just doing what ever it wants with me just hanging on and my guide still blowing his bloody fog horn Boosong enough is enough i think the whole of Asia knows by now that we are into a nice fish and i think he realises that its time to stop, another 15 min has now past and quite a crowd is starting to gather and still i cannot do a thing with it ,i dont think i managed to turn it once and also now my shoulders are starting to ache, still at least its dark and quite cool i think as it goes off on another run this time out towards the middle of the lake and still i cant do anything at all with it,any after 45min the line goes slack ITS GONE after all that work and it was still 200yrds out and we never even see it,when reeled the line in it had gone at the method feeder and thats a real bad feeling that i now have in my stomach and as close as i have ever been to throwing up without doing so i know thats fishing but it still hurts while i am writing this post and i have been back home 3 weeks
Any way we pack up and walk back to the entrance as Damian arrives i say my good byes to Boosong and tonight i am going out on the p*** to drown my sorrows,
Thankyou to all those people who posted messages under my posts and either tonight or tomorrow i will try to post a summary as i am running out of time and need to do some work
Tight lines Simple man

[MRG2000]

Another brilliant read, that 118LB`er is a stonking fish ....

[chesty]

yea great read again john